Re: The Long Ecological Revolution
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:51 pm
Ohio Derailment Leads to Long-Term Environmental Concerns
Toxic cloud over East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., Feb. 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @noreward_norisk
Published 16 February 2023 (4 hours 2 minutes ago)
Vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ethers have been released to the air, soil, and surface waters.
Residents in and around the village of East Palestine, in Ohio, feared for their health and concerns have mounted about the environmental effect, after about 50 Norfolk Southern train cars, including 20 carrying hazardous materials, derailed on Feb. 3.
No one was injured in the derailment that investigators said was caused by a broken axle. Fearful of a major explosion, authorities have carved out an evacuation zone and carried out a "controlled release" of toxic fumes to neutralize burning cargo inside some of the cars.
"Plumes of smoke, questions about dead animals, worries about the drinking water. A train derailment in Ohio and subsequent burning of some of the hazardous chemicals has people asking: How worried should they be?" reported The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Concerns about air quality and the hazardous chemicals on board the train prompted some village residents to leave, and officials later ordered the evacuation of the immediate area as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.
TOXINS
Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.
Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risk of certain cancers, and officials at the time warned burning it would release two concerning gases -- hydrogen chloride and phosgene, the latter of which was used as a weapon in World War I.
According to the Associate Press report, environmental officials said that monitors detected toxins in the air at the site during the controlled burn and that officials kept people away until that dissipated. They said continuing air monitoring done for the railroad and by government agencies, including testing inside nearly 400 homes, hasn't detected dangerous levels in the area since residents were allowed to return.
However, even in communities beyond East Palestine, some residents said they worry about long-term effects of even low-grade exposure to contaminants from the site.
The village scheduled a town hall at the local high school Wednesday evening to hear questions from residents, whose concerns have included lingering smells, how to ensure accountability for the cleanup, and what to make of pets and livestock that have appeared ill or died since the derailment.
CONTAMINATION
On Feb. 10, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that about 20 rail cars were reported to have been carrying hazardous materials. Chemicals including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ethers were "known to have been and continue to be" released to the air, surface soil and surface waters.
On Feb. 12, the EPA, after monitoring the air, said it had not detected contaminants at "levels of concern" in and around East Palestine, although residents might still smell odors. The agency insisted that it had not detected vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride, which could cause life-threatening respiratory issues.
On social media and in news reports, some residents said that fish and frogs were dying in local streams and people have shared images of dead animals or said they smelled chemical odors around town.
"Residents of the area have complained of headaches and feeling sick since the derailment," reported The New York Times on Wednesday.
Ten days after the derailment, Senator J.D. Vance, a Republican of Ohio, said in a statement on Twitter that it was a "complex environmental disaster" that would require long-term study.
The Ohio EPA is working on a two-stage cleanup, starting with the removal of materials from the site before moving to an assessment for a remediation plan.
LAWSUIT
Residents have filed a federal lawsuit over the derailment along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, seeking to force Norfolk Southern to set up health monitoring for residents in both states.
The lawsuit filed on Feb. 9 by two Pennsylvania residents calls for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the derailment to determine who was affected by toxic substances released after the derailment. The lawsuit is also seeking undetermined damages.
Environmental regulators have been monitoring the air and water in surrounding communities, saying that so far the air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected.
While some residents have complained about headaches and feeling sick since the derailment, Norfolk Southern declined to comment on the lawsuit.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ohi ... -0001.html
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Environmental Disaster in Ohio: Decrepit Infrastructure and Unfair Working Conditions Culminate in Train Derailment
FEBRUARY 15, 2023
A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, resulting from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying chemicals on Monday, February 6, 2023. Photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP.
The derailment of a train transporting highly toxic chemical material in Ohio has been reported as an event that could affect the local population’s health. However, in the last few hours, the United States government has issued more information about the sightings of unidentified aerial objects than about this event.
The accident occurred during the night of February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, very close to the border with Pennsylvania.
According to the authorities’ latest account, five to ten of the nearly 50 carriages contained vinyl chloride, a dangerous chemical lethal to humans due to its high degree of toxicity.
The National Cancer Institute of the United States considers this substance to have properties that can lead to blood or lung cancer if breathed for a prolonged period of time. According to local media reports, the risk is that the vinyl chloride contaminates the region’s drinking water or continues to mix with the local air. Burning vinyl chloride produces hydrogen chloride and phosgene. The latter was common in World War I during chemical attacks.
Despite this disaster, most US press — and even the White House itself — issued more information about the aerial objects that appeared in different parts of the United States and Canada. At the same time, conspiracy theories circulated on social media about alleged UFOs or extraterrestrial life being used as smokescreens to cover up the spilling and burning of toxic chemicals in Ohio.
“East Palestine, Ohio is undergoing an ecological disaster because authorities blew up the train derailment cars carrying hazardous chemicals and the press are being arrested for trying to tell the story. Oh, but UFOs! What is going on?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a Republican, wrote on social media.
The train that derailed belongs to the Norfolk Southern railway company. In late 2022, railway workers were about to strike. One of their main grievances was the urgent need for safety improvements. However, in its characteristic desire to prioritize profits over workers — and later the community’s safety — the Biden Administration intervened in the union’s attempts to strike. This disaster comes after several governments, led by both democrats and republicans, have failed to fulfill their promises of improving US infrastructure.
According to reports from local authorities, several carriages exploded, generating a fire that was visible from miles away. The vinyl chloride stored in some carriages is used in the manufacturing of plastics such as cable coatings and packaging materials.
Faced with the risk of a major explosion, the authorities decided to perform a controlled release of the toxic gases caused by the burning of the transported material. They also decided to evacuate the population living within a one-mile radius of the accident. However, the measure was extended to Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Not all the residents wanted to leave their homes.
The authorities also warned that a plume of hydrogen chloride and phosgene would be created, a gas that causes health problems and is potentially lethal.
“Residents living within a mile of the train derailment site who have not yet left their homes are asked to immediately evacuate due to the potential of a major explosion,” Governor Mike DeWine stated.
Amid the disaster, journalist Evan Lambert was detained while investigating the environmental impact of the accident. Although he was released hours later, the case caused conspiracy theories to spread, including doubts regarding the true impact of the toxic gas release.
So far, residents of the area and some media have reported the death of fish, frogs, chickens, dogs and foxes, as well as air and water pollution.
[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1623658262125072386[/youtube]
Smokescreen?
On February 12, the Pentagon called a press conference to report on the alleged appearances of unidentified aerial objects in the United States and Canada. According to General Glen D. VanHerck, head of Air Force Northern Command, the United States intelligence and counterintelligence community continues to assess “every threat or potential threats unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.”
These statements came after the shooting down of the third unidentified flying object in just three days. “We call them objects [and not balloons] for a reason,” VanHerck said.
It was not long until conspiracy theories appeared on social media amid the lack of clarity from the US authorities, to the point that some media outlets in other countries have called the train accident the US Chernobyl.
For its part, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that a mechanical problem was the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that the environmental damage is limited.
https://orinocotribune.com/environmenta ... erailment/
*******
Train wrecks, earthquakes and profits
February 16, 2023 Stephen Millies
Toxic mushroom cloud rises over East Palestine, Ohio.
In the Turkey-Syria quake, construction shortcuts helped kill thousands.
What’s the connection between the earthquake in Syria and Turkey with the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio?
More than 41,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed by the Feb. 6 earthquake. No one has died so far in the Feb. 3 train wreck or from the dangerous chemicals that were released because of it.
Earthquakes are terrible natural events caused by the shifting and collision of plates inside the earth. Reinforced buildings designed to withstand shocks can greatly reduce fatalities.
Real estate sharks seeking more profits aren’t interested in constructing safer buildings. Thousands of people were killed because of contractors trying to cut costs
There was nothing natural about the wreck of the Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed. The 150-car train was 9,300 feet long and weighed 18,000 tons.
Railroad tycoons like long trains, which are part of their Precision Scheduled Railroading model. PSR has helped destroy 62,000 railroad jobs since 2015 while increasing average train length by 25%.
It’s simple logic that the longer a train is, the more likely there will be an equipment defect. Excluding the locomotives, a 150-car freight train has 600 axles.
An overheated roller bearing on a wheel axle apparently failed, causing 38 cars to derail with catastrophic results. Another 12 cars were damaged.
Twenty cars carried hazardous materials. Residents of East Palestine were told to temporarily evacuate and drink bottled water.
A huge mushroom cloud rose above the town. Dead fish have been found in streams within 7.5 miles of the catastrophe. Toxic residue was found in the Ohio River.
While Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was holding a news conference on the train wreck, his state troopers arrested Evan Lambert, a Black TV reporter for News Nation. Lambert’s resisting arrest and trespassing charges were later dismissed.
Five tank cars were deliberately exploded on Feb. 6. “We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,” said Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist.
Cancer time bomb
Among the dangerous cancer-causing chemicals that continue to be released into the air, soil and water are vinyl chloride gas, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ethers. Also released was phosgene gas that was used in World War I to kill and blind soldiers.
Railroad workers cleared the important transportation artery by Feb. 4. That’s what Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and the outfit’s big stockholders care about: keep the trains rolling and the profits coming in.
Among the 10 biggest Norfolk Southern stockholders, holding a total of more than 24 million shares, are JP Morgan Investment Advisors, BlackRock and Wells Fargo.
Shaw made $4.5 million last year but doesn’t want to give any sick days to railroad workers. Shaw’s lobbyists got Trump to throw out a safety rule adopted under the Obama administration. It mandated a new electronic braking system for trains carrying hazardous goods like the train that derailed.
Big-hearted Norfolk Southern, which hauled in $4.8 billion in profit last year, is offering $1,000 “inconvenience checks” to East Palestine residents. Warren, Ohio, Attorney David Engler is advising clients not to take the chump change since it could be used as an excuse by NS management to deny further compensation.
Economic sanctions and deindustrialization
In the Turkey-Syria quake, construction shortcuts helped kill children and their parents. So did the U.S. capitalist government.
The Pentagon has been at war with the elected Syrian government since 2011. U.S. forces seized Syrian oil and wheat fields.
U.S. sanctions, some of which have been lifted, prevented aid from going to Syria. U.S. sanctions against socialist Cuba haven’t stopped Cuban doctors and other healthcare workers from helping Syrians.
One of the biggest U.S. Air Force bases is in Incirlik, Turkey, near the earthquake zone. Nuclear weapons continue to be stored there.
East Palestine, Ohio, almost touches the Pennsylvania border. Western Pennsylvania and Northeastern Ohio were once one of the biggest concentrations of steel mills and heavy industry in the world.
Hundreds of thousands of union jobs were destroyed in a region that includes Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Deliberate deindustrialization is also an economic sanction.
East Palestine is named after the country of Palestine. David Ben Gurion was the first prime minister of the apartheid regime that occupies Palestine.
He said of the Palestinians driven out during the Nakba or catastrophe that “the old will die and the young will forget.” Palestinians have never forgotten their homeland and are continuing to fight for their freedom against a racist colonial government.
If East Palestine becomes a cancer cluster 10 or 20 years from now, railroad owners also hope that “the old will die and the young will forget.” Many of those possible cancer victims will be youthful.
The U.S. government has shoveled over $140 billion into Israel while it has lavished money on railroads for 160 years. General Custer had it coming, and he died for the Northern Pacific Railway that was invading Lakota Sioux land. The Northern Pacific is now part of billionaire Warren Buffet’s BNSF railway.
From Palestine to East Palestine, it’s poor and working people who suffer from capitalist disasters.
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/ ... d-profits/
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the campaign to greenwash natural gas (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack).
The corporate campaign to greenwash natural gas
Originally published: The Lever on February 14, 2023 by Naomi LaChance (more by The Lever) | (Posted Feb 15, 2023)
Last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed legislation to call natural gas a “green energy.” The law was pushed by conservative dark money groups and passed by Republican lawmakers backed by the oil and gas industry.
A few weeks later, former congressman and 2022 Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan joined a fossil fuel front group that claims “natural gas is accelerating our transition to a clean energy future.”
These greenwashing efforts are examples of how politicians from both parties are helping the fossil fuel industry’s campaign to promote the use of natural gas and brand it as a climate-friendly energy source. At times, this help has entailed former elected officials getting hired by the industry.
The efforts come as the Biden administration considers banning gas stoves, based on concerns about asthma. Some cities have banned natural gas hookups in new buildings, while others are considering a ban.
Despite the claims of the energy industry and their political allies that natural gas is a climate-friendly alternative to other fossil fuels, the production and use of natural gas, which is essentially methane, has a negative impact on both the planet and public health. Natural gas, which people use to heat their homes and power their stoves, contributes to increasing global temperatures. Experts warn the effects of natural gas leaks could make its use even worse for the planet than coal.
“Earth’s Cleanest Traditional Fuel”
The American Gas Association, a gas industry lobbying group, has described natural gas as “the earth’s cleanest traditional fuel,” claiming that its use cuts emissions. Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil’s website calls natural gas a cleaner fuel, while Chevron says it’s the “cleanest burning conventional fuel.” Other companies are pushing the idea of “green” liquified natural gas, the form in which gas is stored and transported. In 2019, the Trump Administration even tried to rebrand natural gas as “freedom gas.”
But research has shown that methane is worse for the environment than fossil fuel companies let on. Methane molecules, the main component of natural gas, are as much as 90 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide molecules are. While methane releases far less carbon than coal, its use contributes to rising global temperatures.
For years, energy companies have downplayed the amount of methane they are leaking into the atmosphere. Researchers have found that the effects of methane leaks during the fracking and transportation process could outweigh the supposed climate benefits of using natural gas over coal.
In addition to the broader climate impacts, there are also health and safety risks associated with using gas appliances in homes and workplaces. These factors have led some cities–and some state and federal policymakers–to look to move away from natural gas.
Berkeley and San Francisco, California, have banned natural gas hookups in new buildings. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal government agency that assesses risks associated with products and creates bans or recalls, is considering banning gas stoves, citing concerns about asthma.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently voiced her support for a ban on the use of fossil fuels for heating beginning in 2030. She also said she supported a ban on gas stoves in new construction. Last year, New York City banned fossil fuel heating equipment in certain buildings starting in 2024.
The gas stove ban floated by the Biden administration quickly drew ire from conservatives concerned about a purported lack of personal freedom. Coal magnate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have now introduced legislation to preemptively block any federal ban on new gas stoves.
In many states, politicians have also already stepped in to protect the gas industry. In 2019, Flagstaff, Arizona, was focused on using electric power as a way to reduce emissions. The next year, the state legislature passed a preemption law barring cities and towns from banning natural gas on a local level.
Nineteen other states have followed Arizona’s lead and made it so cities and towns cannot ban natural gas–often with backing from the fossil fuel industry. For instance, former Utah state Rep. Steve Handy (R) told Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, that gas utility Dominion Energy requested that he propose legislation barring natural gas bans, which he sponsored and Utah passed in 2021.
In Ohio, energy companies hold a notoriously strong influence. In 2020, the chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio resigned after electric utility FirstEnergy Corp allegedly bribed Ohio lobbyists and political officials to try to get a $1.3 billion buyout for two Ohio power plants.
FirstEnergy and its affiliates allegedly passed $60 million through a dark money group to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) and other politicians in exchange for the bailout. A federal corruption trial is underway.
There was also a dark money campaign behind the effort to develop and pass Ohio’s new law enshrining natural gas as a “clean energy.” Ohio lawmakers passed the legislation as part of a collaboration with dark money groups tied to the fossil fuel industry, according to documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group focusing on renewable energ,.
The documents show one of the bill’s cosponsors, Ohio state Sen. George Lang (R), wrote from a conference held last summer by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a dark money group and policy hub for conservative politicians, that he would “be leaving the ALEC convention with some model legislation to define on the ORC [Ohio revised code] that natural gas is clean energy.”
One recipient of Lang’s email was Tom Rastin, executive vice president at the Ariel Corporation, the largest producer of natural gas compressors in the world. Natural gas compressors are crucial to pipelines because they make the gas easier to transport.
Rastin and his wife, Ariel CEO Karen Buchwald Wright, lead the Empowerment Alliance, a dark money group that supported the Ohio bill characterizing natural gas as clean energy. The couple has given money to the Republican Governors’ Association, which bankrolled ads supporting DeWine.
On their website, the Empowerment Alliance details its energy agenda. The first point is to “recognize natural gas as green.” They write:
American natural gas is affordable, clean, abundant, and reliable energy that improves the environment while securing American energy independence.
Emails show Rastin corresponding with Lang as well as state Sen. Mark Romanchuk (R), another sponsor. Romanchuk has publicly claimed the bill was inspired by a 2022 E.U. decision to call natural gas “sustainable” in some instances.
According to the documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, in October 2022, Romanchuk’s office sent language from the bill at least three times to Adam Hewitt, a lobbyist for the Empowerment Alliance.
Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, told the Washington Post:
What the emails reveal is just how closely Ohio lawmakers coordinated with a natural gas industry group on the new law that misleadingly defines methane gas as green energy, as the first step of a plan to introduce similar legislation in multiple states.
DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, has taken campaign contributions from several utilities that rely on or distribute natural gas, including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, NiSource, Dominion Energy, and FirstEnergy.
“We reviewed the ‘Green Energy’ language, and it has no effect on any state funding or regulations. The language is merely an opinion of the Ohio General Assembly,” Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, told The Lever.
“Pro-Climate, Pro-Affordability, and Pro-Natural Gas”
A prominent Ohio Democrat, meanwhile, is now aiding a separate fossil fuel industry campaign to greenwash natural gas.
Former congressman Tim Ryan, who lost the Ohio Senate race to J.D. Vance in November, recently joined the leadership council of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, a front group for natural gas interests.
“I am excited to join Natural Allies and promote the role natural gas plays in meeting global climate goals faster, while advancing reliability and affordability here at home,” Ryan said in a press release.
These are kitchen table issues voters understand–people’s livelihoods and jobs often depend on rational energy policy. As Democrats, we can be pro-climate, pro-affordability, and pro-natural gas.
During his Senate campaign, Ryan told the Washington Post that fracking, a process commonly used to extract natural gas, has “provided enormous economic benefits and moved the U.S. towards energy independence. However, we need to significantly ramp up our oversight and regulation of the industry and its practices, especially in regard to its use and disposal of water, as well as methane leaks.”
Natural Allies recently released a video ad narrated by young people that claims,
replacing coal with natural gas is the best way to cut emissions, reach climate goals, [and] empower our future reliably, cleanly, and affordably.
Ryan joined former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on Natural Allies’ leadership council. Landrieu, a conservative Democrat, became a lobbyist after losing her race in the 2014 election. She recently registered to lobby for the Williams Companies, a natural gas company supporting Natural Allies, on pipeline issues. Landrieu has also lobbied to help the oil and gas firm Enterprise Products obtain authorization to build a crude oil export hub off the coast of Texas.
https://mronline.org/2023/02/15/the-cor ... tural-gas/
Toxic cloud over East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., Feb. 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @noreward_norisk
Published 16 February 2023 (4 hours 2 minutes ago)
Vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ethers have been released to the air, soil, and surface waters.
Residents in and around the village of East Palestine, in Ohio, feared for their health and concerns have mounted about the environmental effect, after about 50 Norfolk Southern train cars, including 20 carrying hazardous materials, derailed on Feb. 3.
No one was injured in the derailment that investigators said was caused by a broken axle. Fearful of a major explosion, authorities have carved out an evacuation zone and carried out a "controlled release" of toxic fumes to neutralize burning cargo inside some of the cars.
"Plumes of smoke, questions about dead animals, worries about the drinking water. A train derailment in Ohio and subsequent burning of some of the hazardous chemicals has people asking: How worried should they be?" reported The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Concerns about air quality and the hazardous chemicals on board the train prompted some village residents to leave, and officials later ordered the evacuation of the immediate area as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.
TOXINS
Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.
Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risk of certain cancers, and officials at the time warned burning it would release two concerning gases -- hydrogen chloride and phosgene, the latter of which was used as a weapon in World War I.
According to the Associate Press report, environmental officials said that monitors detected toxins in the air at the site during the controlled burn and that officials kept people away until that dissipated. They said continuing air monitoring done for the railroad and by government agencies, including testing inside nearly 400 homes, hasn't detected dangerous levels in the area since residents were allowed to return.
However, even in communities beyond East Palestine, some residents said they worry about long-term effects of even low-grade exposure to contaminants from the site.
The village scheduled a town hall at the local high school Wednesday evening to hear questions from residents, whose concerns have included lingering smells, how to ensure accountability for the cleanup, and what to make of pets and livestock that have appeared ill or died since the derailment.
CONTAMINATION
On Feb. 10, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that about 20 rail cars were reported to have been carrying hazardous materials. Chemicals including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ethers were "known to have been and continue to be" released to the air, surface soil and surface waters.
On Feb. 12, the EPA, after monitoring the air, said it had not detected contaminants at "levels of concern" in and around East Palestine, although residents might still smell odors. The agency insisted that it had not detected vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride, which could cause life-threatening respiratory issues.
On social media and in news reports, some residents said that fish and frogs were dying in local streams and people have shared images of dead animals or said they smelled chemical odors around town.
"Residents of the area have complained of headaches and feeling sick since the derailment," reported The New York Times on Wednesday.
Ten days after the derailment, Senator J.D. Vance, a Republican of Ohio, said in a statement on Twitter that it was a "complex environmental disaster" that would require long-term study.
The Ohio EPA is working on a two-stage cleanup, starting with the removal of materials from the site before moving to an assessment for a remediation plan.
LAWSUIT
Residents have filed a federal lawsuit over the derailment along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, seeking to force Norfolk Southern to set up health monitoring for residents in both states.
The lawsuit filed on Feb. 9 by two Pennsylvania residents calls for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the derailment to determine who was affected by toxic substances released after the derailment. The lawsuit is also seeking undetermined damages.
Environmental regulators have been monitoring the air and water in surrounding communities, saying that so far the air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected.
While some residents have complained about headaches and feeling sick since the derailment, Norfolk Southern declined to comment on the lawsuit.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ohi ... -0001.html
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Environmental Disaster in Ohio: Decrepit Infrastructure and Unfair Working Conditions Culminate in Train Derailment
FEBRUARY 15, 2023
A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, resulting from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying chemicals on Monday, February 6, 2023. Photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP.
The derailment of a train transporting highly toxic chemical material in Ohio has been reported as an event that could affect the local population’s health. However, in the last few hours, the United States government has issued more information about the sightings of unidentified aerial objects than about this event.
The accident occurred during the night of February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, very close to the border with Pennsylvania.
According to the authorities’ latest account, five to ten of the nearly 50 carriages contained vinyl chloride, a dangerous chemical lethal to humans due to its high degree of toxicity.
The National Cancer Institute of the United States considers this substance to have properties that can lead to blood or lung cancer if breathed for a prolonged period of time. According to local media reports, the risk is that the vinyl chloride contaminates the region’s drinking water or continues to mix with the local air. Burning vinyl chloride produces hydrogen chloride and phosgene. The latter was common in World War I during chemical attacks.
Despite this disaster, most US press — and even the White House itself — issued more information about the aerial objects that appeared in different parts of the United States and Canada. At the same time, conspiracy theories circulated on social media about alleged UFOs or extraterrestrial life being used as smokescreens to cover up the spilling and burning of toxic chemicals in Ohio.
“East Palestine, Ohio is undergoing an ecological disaster because authorities blew up the train derailment cars carrying hazardous chemicals and the press are being arrested for trying to tell the story. Oh, but UFOs! What is going on?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a Republican, wrote on social media.
The train that derailed belongs to the Norfolk Southern railway company. In late 2022, railway workers were about to strike. One of their main grievances was the urgent need for safety improvements. However, in its characteristic desire to prioritize profits over workers — and later the community’s safety — the Biden Administration intervened in the union’s attempts to strike. This disaster comes after several governments, led by both democrats and republicans, have failed to fulfill their promises of improving US infrastructure.
According to reports from local authorities, several carriages exploded, generating a fire that was visible from miles away. The vinyl chloride stored in some carriages is used in the manufacturing of plastics such as cable coatings and packaging materials.
Faced with the risk of a major explosion, the authorities decided to perform a controlled release of the toxic gases caused by the burning of the transported material. They also decided to evacuate the population living within a one-mile radius of the accident. However, the measure was extended to Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Not all the residents wanted to leave their homes.
The authorities also warned that a plume of hydrogen chloride and phosgene would be created, a gas that causes health problems and is potentially lethal.
“Residents living within a mile of the train derailment site who have not yet left their homes are asked to immediately evacuate due to the potential of a major explosion,” Governor Mike DeWine stated.
Amid the disaster, journalist Evan Lambert was detained while investigating the environmental impact of the accident. Although he was released hours later, the case caused conspiracy theories to spread, including doubts regarding the true impact of the toxic gas release.
So far, residents of the area and some media have reported the death of fish, frogs, chickens, dogs and foxes, as well as air and water pollution.
[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1623658262125072386[/youtube]
Smokescreen?
On February 12, the Pentagon called a press conference to report on the alleged appearances of unidentified aerial objects in the United States and Canada. According to General Glen D. VanHerck, head of Air Force Northern Command, the United States intelligence and counterintelligence community continues to assess “every threat or potential threats unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.”
These statements came after the shooting down of the third unidentified flying object in just three days. “We call them objects [and not balloons] for a reason,” VanHerck said.
It was not long until conspiracy theories appeared on social media amid the lack of clarity from the US authorities, to the point that some media outlets in other countries have called the train accident the US Chernobyl.
For its part, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that a mechanical problem was the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that the environmental damage is limited.
https://orinocotribune.com/environmenta ... erailment/
*******
Train wrecks, earthquakes and profits
February 16, 2023 Stephen Millies
Toxic mushroom cloud rises over East Palestine, Ohio.
In the Turkey-Syria quake, construction shortcuts helped kill thousands.
What’s the connection between the earthquake in Syria and Turkey with the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio?
More than 41,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed by the Feb. 6 earthquake. No one has died so far in the Feb. 3 train wreck or from the dangerous chemicals that were released because of it.
Earthquakes are terrible natural events caused by the shifting and collision of plates inside the earth. Reinforced buildings designed to withstand shocks can greatly reduce fatalities.
Real estate sharks seeking more profits aren’t interested in constructing safer buildings. Thousands of people were killed because of contractors trying to cut costs
There was nothing natural about the wreck of the Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed. The 150-car train was 9,300 feet long and weighed 18,000 tons.
Railroad tycoons like long trains, which are part of their Precision Scheduled Railroading model. PSR has helped destroy 62,000 railroad jobs since 2015 while increasing average train length by 25%.
It’s simple logic that the longer a train is, the more likely there will be an equipment defect. Excluding the locomotives, a 150-car freight train has 600 axles.
An overheated roller bearing on a wheel axle apparently failed, causing 38 cars to derail with catastrophic results. Another 12 cars were damaged.
Twenty cars carried hazardous materials. Residents of East Palestine were told to temporarily evacuate and drink bottled water.
A huge mushroom cloud rose above the town. Dead fish have been found in streams within 7.5 miles of the catastrophe. Toxic residue was found in the Ohio River.
While Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was holding a news conference on the train wreck, his state troopers arrested Evan Lambert, a Black TV reporter for News Nation. Lambert’s resisting arrest and trespassing charges were later dismissed.
Five tank cars were deliberately exploded on Feb. 6. “We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,” said Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist.
Cancer time bomb
Among the dangerous cancer-causing chemicals that continue to be released into the air, soil and water are vinyl chloride gas, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ethers. Also released was phosgene gas that was used in World War I to kill and blind soldiers.
Railroad workers cleared the important transportation artery by Feb. 4. That’s what Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and the outfit’s big stockholders care about: keep the trains rolling and the profits coming in.
Among the 10 biggest Norfolk Southern stockholders, holding a total of more than 24 million shares, are JP Morgan Investment Advisors, BlackRock and Wells Fargo.
Shaw made $4.5 million last year but doesn’t want to give any sick days to railroad workers. Shaw’s lobbyists got Trump to throw out a safety rule adopted under the Obama administration. It mandated a new electronic braking system for trains carrying hazardous goods like the train that derailed.
Big-hearted Norfolk Southern, which hauled in $4.8 billion in profit last year, is offering $1,000 “inconvenience checks” to East Palestine residents. Warren, Ohio, Attorney David Engler is advising clients not to take the chump change since it could be used as an excuse by NS management to deny further compensation.
Economic sanctions and deindustrialization
In the Turkey-Syria quake, construction shortcuts helped kill children and their parents. So did the U.S. capitalist government.
The Pentagon has been at war with the elected Syrian government since 2011. U.S. forces seized Syrian oil and wheat fields.
U.S. sanctions, some of which have been lifted, prevented aid from going to Syria. U.S. sanctions against socialist Cuba haven’t stopped Cuban doctors and other healthcare workers from helping Syrians.
One of the biggest U.S. Air Force bases is in Incirlik, Turkey, near the earthquake zone. Nuclear weapons continue to be stored there.
East Palestine, Ohio, almost touches the Pennsylvania border. Western Pennsylvania and Northeastern Ohio were once one of the biggest concentrations of steel mills and heavy industry in the world.
Hundreds of thousands of union jobs were destroyed in a region that includes Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Deliberate deindustrialization is also an economic sanction.
East Palestine is named after the country of Palestine. David Ben Gurion was the first prime minister of the apartheid regime that occupies Palestine.
He said of the Palestinians driven out during the Nakba or catastrophe that “the old will die and the young will forget.” Palestinians have never forgotten their homeland and are continuing to fight for their freedom against a racist colonial government.
If East Palestine becomes a cancer cluster 10 or 20 years from now, railroad owners also hope that “the old will die and the young will forget.” Many of those possible cancer victims will be youthful.
The U.S. government has shoveled over $140 billion into Israel while it has lavished money on railroads for 160 years. General Custer had it coming, and he died for the Northern Pacific Railway that was invading Lakota Sioux land. The Northern Pacific is now part of billionaire Warren Buffet’s BNSF railway.
From Palestine to East Palestine, it’s poor and working people who suffer from capitalist disasters.
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/ ... d-profits/
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the campaign to greenwash natural gas (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack).
The corporate campaign to greenwash natural gas
Originally published: The Lever on February 14, 2023 by Naomi LaChance (more by The Lever) | (Posted Feb 15, 2023)
Last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed legislation to call natural gas a “green energy.” The law was pushed by conservative dark money groups and passed by Republican lawmakers backed by the oil and gas industry.
A few weeks later, former congressman and 2022 Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan joined a fossil fuel front group that claims “natural gas is accelerating our transition to a clean energy future.”
These greenwashing efforts are examples of how politicians from both parties are helping the fossil fuel industry’s campaign to promote the use of natural gas and brand it as a climate-friendly energy source. At times, this help has entailed former elected officials getting hired by the industry.
The efforts come as the Biden administration considers banning gas stoves, based on concerns about asthma. Some cities have banned natural gas hookups in new buildings, while others are considering a ban.
Despite the claims of the energy industry and their political allies that natural gas is a climate-friendly alternative to other fossil fuels, the production and use of natural gas, which is essentially methane, has a negative impact on both the planet and public health. Natural gas, which people use to heat their homes and power their stoves, contributes to increasing global temperatures. Experts warn the effects of natural gas leaks could make its use even worse for the planet than coal.
“Earth’s Cleanest Traditional Fuel”
The American Gas Association, a gas industry lobbying group, has described natural gas as “the earth’s cleanest traditional fuel,” claiming that its use cuts emissions. Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil’s website calls natural gas a cleaner fuel, while Chevron says it’s the “cleanest burning conventional fuel.” Other companies are pushing the idea of “green” liquified natural gas, the form in which gas is stored and transported. In 2019, the Trump Administration even tried to rebrand natural gas as “freedom gas.”
But research has shown that methane is worse for the environment than fossil fuel companies let on. Methane molecules, the main component of natural gas, are as much as 90 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide molecules are. While methane releases far less carbon than coal, its use contributes to rising global temperatures.
For years, energy companies have downplayed the amount of methane they are leaking into the atmosphere. Researchers have found that the effects of methane leaks during the fracking and transportation process could outweigh the supposed climate benefits of using natural gas over coal.
In addition to the broader climate impacts, there are also health and safety risks associated with using gas appliances in homes and workplaces. These factors have led some cities–and some state and federal policymakers–to look to move away from natural gas.
Berkeley and San Francisco, California, have banned natural gas hookups in new buildings. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal government agency that assesses risks associated with products and creates bans or recalls, is considering banning gas stoves, citing concerns about asthma.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently voiced her support for a ban on the use of fossil fuels for heating beginning in 2030. She also said she supported a ban on gas stoves in new construction. Last year, New York City banned fossil fuel heating equipment in certain buildings starting in 2024.
The gas stove ban floated by the Biden administration quickly drew ire from conservatives concerned about a purported lack of personal freedom. Coal magnate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have now introduced legislation to preemptively block any federal ban on new gas stoves.
In many states, politicians have also already stepped in to protect the gas industry. In 2019, Flagstaff, Arizona, was focused on using electric power as a way to reduce emissions. The next year, the state legislature passed a preemption law barring cities and towns from banning natural gas on a local level.
Nineteen other states have followed Arizona’s lead and made it so cities and towns cannot ban natural gas–often with backing from the fossil fuel industry. For instance, former Utah state Rep. Steve Handy (R) told Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, that gas utility Dominion Energy requested that he propose legislation barring natural gas bans, which he sponsored and Utah passed in 2021.
In Ohio, energy companies hold a notoriously strong influence. In 2020, the chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio resigned after electric utility FirstEnergy Corp allegedly bribed Ohio lobbyists and political officials to try to get a $1.3 billion buyout for two Ohio power plants.
FirstEnergy and its affiliates allegedly passed $60 million through a dark money group to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) and other politicians in exchange for the bailout. A federal corruption trial is underway.
There was also a dark money campaign behind the effort to develop and pass Ohio’s new law enshrining natural gas as a “clean energy.” Ohio lawmakers passed the legislation as part of a collaboration with dark money groups tied to the fossil fuel industry, according to documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group focusing on renewable energ,.
The documents show one of the bill’s cosponsors, Ohio state Sen. George Lang (R), wrote from a conference held last summer by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a dark money group and policy hub for conservative politicians, that he would “be leaving the ALEC convention with some model legislation to define on the ORC [Ohio revised code] that natural gas is clean energy.”
One recipient of Lang’s email was Tom Rastin, executive vice president at the Ariel Corporation, the largest producer of natural gas compressors in the world. Natural gas compressors are crucial to pipelines because they make the gas easier to transport.
Rastin and his wife, Ariel CEO Karen Buchwald Wright, lead the Empowerment Alliance, a dark money group that supported the Ohio bill characterizing natural gas as clean energy. The couple has given money to the Republican Governors’ Association, which bankrolled ads supporting DeWine.
On their website, the Empowerment Alliance details its energy agenda. The first point is to “recognize natural gas as green.” They write:
American natural gas is affordable, clean, abundant, and reliable energy that improves the environment while securing American energy independence.
Emails show Rastin corresponding with Lang as well as state Sen. Mark Romanchuk (R), another sponsor. Romanchuk has publicly claimed the bill was inspired by a 2022 E.U. decision to call natural gas “sustainable” in some instances.
According to the documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, in October 2022, Romanchuk’s office sent language from the bill at least three times to Adam Hewitt, a lobbyist for the Empowerment Alliance.
Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, told the Washington Post:
What the emails reveal is just how closely Ohio lawmakers coordinated with a natural gas industry group on the new law that misleadingly defines methane gas as green energy, as the first step of a plan to introduce similar legislation in multiple states.
DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, has taken campaign contributions from several utilities that rely on or distribute natural gas, including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, NiSource, Dominion Energy, and FirstEnergy.
“We reviewed the ‘Green Energy’ language, and it has no effect on any state funding or regulations. The language is merely an opinion of the Ohio General Assembly,” Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, told The Lever.
“Pro-Climate, Pro-Affordability, and Pro-Natural Gas”
A prominent Ohio Democrat, meanwhile, is now aiding a separate fossil fuel industry campaign to greenwash natural gas.
Former congressman Tim Ryan, who lost the Ohio Senate race to J.D. Vance in November, recently joined the leadership council of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, a front group for natural gas interests.
“I am excited to join Natural Allies and promote the role natural gas plays in meeting global climate goals faster, while advancing reliability and affordability here at home,” Ryan said in a press release.
These are kitchen table issues voters understand–people’s livelihoods and jobs often depend on rational energy policy. As Democrats, we can be pro-climate, pro-affordability, and pro-natural gas.
During his Senate campaign, Ryan told the Washington Post that fracking, a process commonly used to extract natural gas, has “provided enormous economic benefits and moved the U.S. towards energy independence. However, we need to significantly ramp up our oversight and regulation of the industry and its practices, especially in regard to its use and disposal of water, as well as methane leaks.”
Natural Allies recently released a video ad narrated by young people that claims,
replacing coal with natural gas is the best way to cut emissions, reach climate goals, [and] empower our future reliably, cleanly, and affordably.
Ryan joined former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on Natural Allies’ leadership council. Landrieu, a conservative Democrat, became a lobbyist after losing her race in the 2014 election. She recently registered to lobby for the Williams Companies, a natural gas company supporting Natural Allies, on pipeline issues. Landrieu has also lobbied to help the oil and gas firm Enterprise Products obtain authorization to build a crude oil export hub off the coast of Texas.
https://mronline.org/2023/02/15/the-cor ... tural-gas/